THE late Sir Bobby Robson used to say that a fortnight was a long time in football. For Liverpool FC fans the last 14 days have felt like a lifetime.

From Kenny Dalglish’s sacking, which followed weeks of frenzied, often unseemly, speculation, to the imminent arrival of Brendan Rodgers as his replacement, May has been a fractious, at-time tortuous, month for Reds supporters. Most will be glad to see the back of it, as they prepare to usher in what could be a revolutionary new era at Anfield.

There can be little denying that Rodgers’ appointment, when confirmed, represents an almighty gamble on the part of Fenway Sports Group.

At a time when the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea are looking to zoom into the distance, Liverpool have turned to a 39-year-old with one year’s worth of top-flight experience to try and close the gap.

That is not to say that this is a poor, or regressive move on the part of FSG. Liverpool’s owners have attracted some criticism for the manner in which they have gone about finding a replacement for the revered Dalglish, but their final decision looks laced with logic, and at ease with the philosophy the Americans have long championed for the club.

Sure, his CV may look bare when held up against some of the other names linked, with substance or otherwise, but Rodgers’ exploits during two superb years with Swansea City and, perhaps equally importantly, his potential and desire for further development, mark him out as an intriguing candidate.

Worries will, of course, remain. They are understandable, too. Few would dismiss Rodgers’ achievements at Swansea, or the wide-ranging tributes to his coaching and man-management qualities.

The Ulsterman is clearly an accomplished coach, who can count Jose Mourinho among his biggest fans.

They would, however, be entitled to wonder whether his managerial style would transfer easily from a club like Swansea to a club like Liverpool. There may only have been three places, and five points, separating the two clubs last season, but in terms of history, and the weight of expectation which accompanies it, they are operating in two different worlds.

Roy Hodgson found that out, having been rewarded for some stellar work with Fulham, a similarly-sized club to Swansea, with a crack at the big time at Anfield. Six months later, he was gone, his reign a forgettable trough in the Reds’ storied history.

Rodgers, admittedly, is inheriting a very different club. There will be no stripping of assets to pay back bank debts, no civil war being waged inside the boardroom, and no threat of administration hovering above.

Yet there are similarities. Rodgers, like Hodgson, is replacing a manager who was hugely popular with supporters, and who many felt deserved more leeway following one season of underachievement.

His appointment, like Hodgson’s, is likely to receive a mixed reception from the club’s supporters, who had yearned for a more established name.

Indeed, it is not stretching the point too far to say the Northern Irishman’s first major battle could be a PR one, in which he attempts to convince the sceptics he is worthy of such a lofty position.

It is a battle Hodgson, for all his good intentions, never looked likely to win whilst on Merseyside.

Rodgers can learn plenty from the current England boss’ constant deference to rival managers, and his persistent downplaying of his own club’s ambitions. The Liverpool job is one which requires a thick skin, unshakeable self-belief, and bags of empathy with the club’s loyal supporters.

Rodgers, on the face of it, seems to tick those boxes. He possesses the hunger of a man whose playing career was cut short, aged 20, by a genetic knee condition, and the confidence of a man who spent his formative coaching years under the domineering Mourinho.

His coaching style, based loosely on the model of the Spanish national team but truly refined at Swansea, where he found a chairman willing to back him and supporters willing to support him, is exciting, dynamic, progressive.

His teams run hard, they pass the ball with confidence and imagination, they defend from the front and attack from the back. They also know how to set, and up, the tempo in games, especially on home soil.

That is something Anfield expects, or rather demands, and something the Liverpool of last season lacked too often.

Football never has, and never will be, an exact science. If it was then there would be no point in comment or debate, and much of the game’s unique appeal would be lost.

It is a game of opinions, but the evidence here points to a good, bold appointment, by a club which needed one.